welcome to "balance of power" on bloomberg television. thehe brave today -- on brave today, raising obamacare. and we talk about parliament arresting control of brexit from theresa may. and maria on china's president meeting with european leaders. jason: a lot to get to. we will start in washington. pur, the president wasting no time trying to spend some political capital he has coming out of the weekend, going back after obamacare. what is the latest? >> it comes on the heels of a big victory for president trump, where he was vindicated on corruption and coordination with russia as it pertains to the 2016 eight election, by robert mueller. but now the justice department changingg its -- is

its position and is saying the entire affordable care act should be struck down, as well as letting kids stay on their parents' plans until they are 26, that includes subsidies that have extended coverage for over 20 million people. this was a number one issue for voters in the 2018 midterm elections, and it did not go well for the republicans. those voters prefer democrats. so this is not something that is good politically for the president's party and a baffling move to many of his allies. jason: talk about how the democrats are responding. and itt was a big issue, feels like a big issue as we listen to democratic candidates for the 2020 nomination, what are the d's saying? >> they love the issue. there is nothing that they would prefer to talk about more.

they are saying the move would rip away health coverage for millions of americans. that it would roll back protections for pre-existing conditions, so that the insurers banned from charging people more money on the basis of health status or turning them away. if you repeal the affordable care act, those projections it would go away, so there is plenty for democrats to use against republicans. a ally of president trump, republican, said it that this will be the achilles heel of the president in the 2020 reelection campaign. there is a possibility if this continues past the fifth circuit court of appeals, if there is an appeal to the supreme court, it could happen in the summer of 2020. jason: fascinating. nancy pelosi will be maneuvering, we know that to be the case. thanks to sahil. now to london, jess is outside

of parliament. what is the latest on this resting of control from theresa may to try to move brexit to the next stage, or not? jess: there is not a huge amount of action happening in the chamber, a lot is going on behind the scenes today ahead of tomorrow's vote. as you said, less than parliament voted to take control of the order paper and tomorrow they will have a series of indicative votes, which means sort of a nonbinding votes, trying to work out if there is any kind of majority to break the impasse on how to move forward. what is happening today is people have been pushing forward like toions they would be on that vote, whether it would be a customs union, a norway option, a second referendum, perhaps. then there is discussion about how mps will make the votes.

one proposal would be they would be done on a piece of paper commodity rather than -- of paper, rather than walking through the lobby. that would help people and not to game the system. and another question, which theresa may must decide, is whether or not she will give a free vote, or ask them to vote in line with the government on these indicative votes. some people say it would be absurd for them not to have a free vote, but a she could implement -- but she could implement a whip and have them vote along with the government. jason: who are the key people who will indicate how this will go beyond theresa may? so a former minister, he was one of the lead architects of the moshe last night and he

is now effectively in charge, prime minister for the day, everybody wants to know what he is thinking. he will decide how it plays out. once the amendments are put forward, it is up to the speaker, who i am sure you know have been a -- has been a controversial figure, to selected the amendments that will be voted on tomorrow. jess, a very to busy westminster. now to maria in paris on the chinese president's the visit to the french capital. so, maria, what is the main topic here as it relates to trade? maria: there have been many topics on the table, but what is interesting here is the french rolled out a red carpet for xi, but it was a mixed bag for the president. he did get a huge contract for

airbus, it was double the size that the french president had promised. bannedwei hasn't been from europe, but you see the europeans taking a step back from the negotiations and trade deals to say we must be more strategic about chinese money. we have been too naive. and jean-claude juncker in town, saying china is actually a strategic rivalry with the eu. and if you follow brussels, you know that this is tough language. almost like the europeans have taken a step back and realized chinese money comes with some strings attached. jason: trade is at the front of their minds, but i have to think that brexit is also front of mind with all the european leaders there, president macron strong about it in the last day

or so. exactly. the french are thinking about the u.k. and macron will say this is up to the u.k. people to decide. if the brexiteers, what they want, it really does not exist. this is a political story they will have to fix. the negotiation is done when it comes to the eu. angela merkel has been much more helpful to prime minister may and she will say we have to fight to get a deal. we do not want a disruption, we do not want to fall into the economic repercussions of a no deal brexit. the reality is nobody knows what that would look like. in the eyes of the eu, they think the story is done, it really comes down to prime minister may. the negotiation has long kind of been done here. paris we'll go back to in a few minutes to get an

update on that meeting with the senior fellow from the atlantic council, but for now we want to get a check of the markets. back to london for emma chandra. emma: a lot of hopping around, but take a look at the markets. on, every major index in the green by more than 1%. the nasdaq is taking the lead. the s&p 500, every single sector in the green. energy and tech are leading the gains. equities taking advantage of the pause in the treasury rally, although the spread between the yield and the three-month and 10 year bonds still in reverse. we will switch the board to take a look at the biggest movers within the tech sector.

and i mentioned that tech was the leader. we have a look at apple rising by 1.7%. it was up more than 2% earlier. it is getting a bid following the release of their new services program for video and gaming. analysts say there is potential, but they want more details. in nvidia is rising. and more from piper jaffray, which initiated coverage of nvidia today. staying that gaming is time for growth. twitter is up by 3% today. this shows how disappointing the housing data was. this is the data we got today, following the biggest drop in eight months. and permits for future

construction, they fell as well. buyers and builders are wary, despite the rising mortgage rates and wages. jason: on the housing starts when we catch up with a ben carson later on this hour. coming up next, president xi calling for more trade with europe. we have more on the talks between xi, macron and angela merkel. up for us.it and we take a look at what europe is landing on the huawei issue. this is bloomberg. ♪

jason: this is "balance of power." i'm jason kelly. we turn now the courtney

donohoe, who has first word news. >> president trump last week tweeted he intended to remove sanctions against north korea, but he actually wanted to lift penalties on chinese shippers that violated trade restrictions. that is until officials persuaded him to back off. the team then give more explanation on his tweet, saying the stations against the chinese have remained in place and no additional measures against north korea where necessary. nasa has canceled its first-ever all-female spacewalk. the reason, spacesuit availability. nasa astronauts were scheduled to conduct a spacewalk this friday, both of the women need a medium-sized space, but there is only one ready for use. one female will take at this time. new york will become the first in the u.s. to introduce congestion pricing.

the measure would put a new tolls in place for drivers entering the busiest riches of manhattan. state leaders agreed the plane was necessary to help pay for a much-needed repairs to the subway system. global news 24 hours a day, on air and @tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm courtney donohoe. this is bloomberg. jason? jason: thank you. lookingt xi in europe for support for the belt and road initiative. before he went to france, he published a letter calling for more trade, writing, "french investors are welcome to share opportunities in china and i equally hope the chinese companies can better succeed in france." for more we welcome nicholas, atlantic council future europe initiative senior fellow joining us from paris. right there near the opera

house. a lot of anticipation for this meeting. and the european union, and they sort of teed it up in what they want to get out of this, what do they want and how successful are they so far? nicholas: the letter that you cited from president xi only talked about france, and macron is talking about europe. the european commission put out a taper on the strategic relationship between china and in the european union as a whole, on march 12, and it was used as a briefing paper. we were talking about brexit last week, but the eu leaders were also talking about their relationship with china. it identifies the full range of china as a cooperation partner in certain ways, for example on climate change. . china as a strategic rival. industrials an

competitor, but also do not forget, looking at france, that france just signed a contract for 300 airbus aircraft. that is $10 billion worth of ships. and $10 billion worth of wind farms. so what the bow out of this relationship is sort of the whole range of things. you are right to mention the built -- belt and road initiative, because this is china's soft power and 150 countries have joined, including most recently, this is what brought us all to our attention, italy joined and it is the first j7 country to have done so. jason: talk about that committee italians joining, what does that mean in the broader scheme of things, the first j7 country to sign on? andolas: exactly, portugal greece, austria, all of the

former eastern european communist countries have signed on. thewhat this is doing is chinese come although this initiative has been around since 2013, and really hiding in plain sight, so the europeans as a group, and macron who is underscoring this, are coming to a realization late as china as a strategic competitor. even austria has assigned. france has not, germany has not, and the infrastructure investments that china is making, 95% of the contracts go to china, so it is an economic encirclement. and it is a very clever international policy on the part of china. and president macron once europe to understand china is a strategic rival. and he wants europe to speak with one voice. jason: i find it interesting, exactly what you are talking about as it relates to soft

power, because it plays into discussions we have had on the side of the atlantic as the u.s. and china sort of dance around each other trying to come to a trade agreement of their own. how do you assess so far that balance you are describing between strategic initiatives, but also being cautious about some issues taht are worrisome -- that are worrisome? nicholas: from europe's point of view, the u.s., there is short-term wariness and mistrust, maybe, with some of the erratic nature of the trump administration, but a longtime ally relationship. with china, it is the other way around, it is pretty much short-term trust, look at the contracts signed it today, but suspicion about the long-term. and i think that one of the things that the european

commission people said was there are three big global markets, one in north america, what is china, and the other is the european union. the eu must look at this from a strategic point of view. we know that the eu is better at policy than politics, and ukraine is an example of that. i'm a free-trade agreement with ukraine, that set off putin to invade crimea and the eastern part of ukraine. political terms and the eu is looking at it in technical terms. so it is good to see the european union looking at this from a geopolitical standpoint. there is more of a realization on the european side ban on the u.s. side, that it must include everything from" operation, for example with china, the u.k. and france all members of the united nations and the security council. a lot of issues that require cooperation, there will be a

strategic rivalry that will exist alongside that. jason: when you mention policy, a makes me think of one of the big policy issues of our time, there and here, data privacy, especially with the europeans who have been ahead of the u.s. in that regard. what progress are they making there, because that is a key issue for everyone as it relates to the chinese? . no question about it. huawei is well-positioned in 5g, that is the key of the future and the internet of things, and that was also mentioned in the strategic paper by the european commission. there is great concern about data security, not only personal data protection, but data security of systems, national and international, business and government. i do not think that we can really say that there is a solution yet, but at least

europeans see the problem. i think that europe is ahead of the u.s. with protection for individuals. they have a much more protective of it enjoyed all rights -- of individual rights. when the european commission takes on an issue, brexit by the way and the unity of the eu 27 has been impressive throughout the brexit process, they are getting good at taking on these strategic issues and dealing with them with factual, technical strategies that really looks at what the realities are on the ground, and it is not just political grandstanding. jason: nicholas dungan joining us from paris. still ahead, converse and kevin brady, the ranking member of the house and means committee, and then carson -- and ben carson coming up. this is bloomberg. ♪

jason: this is "balance of power" on bloomberg television. boeing is our stock of the hour. shares are up 3% over two days as investors ignore a big win for the competition and focus on the future. emma is with us from london. talk to me, what is going on? emma: we will start with a big win for the competition, airbus with a big deal with china, worth $35 billion. the planes are the biggest competitor to the boeing 737 max. the certificate has been suspended for those in china.

investors are shrugging that off, especially after a note out wethe analysts who said that should aggressively by the stock. -- buy the stock. the weakness we have seen crashed, and the global grouting of the 737 max, that weakness is priced in. an analyst said there should be a solution to the max at 737 in the coming days, and boeing did speak with airlines yesterday, saying they should submit orders for a free software update for that fix, suggesting the regulators may be getting closer to approving a fix that could see the aircraft back in the air again. jason: and emma, speaking of regulators, news that faa regulators may be reviewed themselves. emma: some reporting out late

last night, the u.s. transportation department creating a special commission to review how aircraft are approved. the commission will evaluate how the faa overseas the process and their use of manufacturer employees to sign off on designs. the software update for the 737 max 8, the lawmakers say they should get an independent review before that can happen, that could be why we are looking at boeing taking down a little bit right now -- ticking down a little bit right now. jason: coming up, the president meeting with lawmakers on trade, while the new nafta deal faces an uncertain road. ♪

jason: this is "balance of power." i'm jason kelly. for bloomberg first word news we get a courtney donohoe during

informed the pentagon congress it has authorized funding to go to building the wall on the u.s. border with mexico. acting defense secretary patrick shanahan directed the army corps fencing ins to build yuma arizona and el paso, texas. venezuela has suspended school and work activities because of power outages after the nation's information minister had just a clear the lights were coming back on. it is the country's second major power outage. the minister is blaming the blackout on the power grid -- on the attack of the power grid by opponents to the maduro regime. china has suspended and airworthiness certificate for the boeing max jet. -- government will review this hits boeing after china orders 35 alien dollars worth of billionlanes -- $35

worth of airbus planes. attorneys for jussie smollett say all criminal charges have been dropped. he was accused of lying to police. police and prosecutors have said the actor falsely reported to authorities that he was attacked in downtown chicago because he was unhappy with his pay on the fox show. global news 24 hours a day, on air and @tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm courtney donohoe. this is bloomberg. jason? jason: president trump campaigned on overhauling nafta, promising to strike a better deal for american workers. now usmca, the president's new trade deal between canada and mexico is facing an uncertain future with the democratically controlled house. republican lawmakers were trying to shore up support for that agreement and they are headed to the white house later today to discuss those efforts.

we welcome one of the people who will be in that room, congressman kevin brady of texas. he is the ranking member of the house ways and means committee. great to see you. rep. brady: good to see you jason. ison: it is a huge issue and wonder as you head to the other end of pennsylvania avenue, what is number one in your agenda? is it usmca? rep. brady: it is. now that we have one of the more modern tax codes in the world, our economy has changed dramatically. what we need are more customers and more workers. the usmca gives us more customers. it is a much more modern agreement. president trump and ambassador robert lighthizer have updated it very well. it will allow us to sell more made in america products. our best customers, mexico and canada. we combine the strength of those countries, our local businesses can compete and win anywhere in

the world because of this new agreement. it is crucial. jason: are you hearing more positive vibes from your colleagues on the other side of the aisle over this? are they being convinced the message is right? rep. brady: i do hear more positive comments from democrats. that is because robert lighthizer made it known he was going to work to address some of the traditional concerns democrats often have with these agreements, especially those in the labor and environmental areas. he spent a considerable amount of time and effort to get that right. i think he starts in this agreement and starts with a much thanr level of support other agreements have. the key on this is timing. it needs to be done this summer. speaker pelosi will determine the timetable when the white house sends it to us. jason: i wanted to ask you about

that timing. how much to worry it could move after the august recess? then we are in the thick of 2020. it becomes more of a political football. rep. brady: the sweet spot is the summer. i worry about the rush to impeachment, four investigating committees against the president. they will not let go of the mueller collusion stuff. that is getting in the way of the real issues that americans are focused on, which is how do we get this economy going, how to we sell more agriculture, local products? how do we compete better? this is what usmca does. jason: i have to imagine that after a before you get usmca, the president and you will want to talk about china. .resident xi in europe where are we there? what do you need to see to make you feel comfortable it is a win

for the united states as it relates to china? rep. brady: if it was not a real win, it would have already been concluded. the fact that they have spent nearly a month and a half going through the serious details of this potential agreement tells you how sensitive it is. we are not asking, they are not demanding china change its economic model. they are demanding a change on the part of the model that depends on cheating. getting an agreement that is ,ubstantive, that is measurable that can be enforced at every level of government, all of that is on the front side of where the negotiations are. the fact they are taking their time, not rushing into a bad deal, making it significant, that bodes well. what do you make of the

idea that tariffs should be removed on day one? , or should we wait to see whether the chinese live up to the agreement? rep. brady: it is important these commitments be measurable. the president may want to phase down those tariffs. the key thing is for those tariffs to go away, ultimately. i think it is critical. certainly some of those tariffs and early release from them would be helpful for both countries in both of our interest. inhink all of that should be the design of the final package. at that end of the day, i'm not a fan of tariffs. i want them gone so those costs are lower and we can do more free trade. jason: let's talk taxes. it is that time of year. you are an author of a major tax overhaul we saw last year. as people start to get their refunds or they start to get tax

bills, how much do you worry about the politics of that if those refunds do not come through the way folks are used to? rep. brady: they are. last week, refunds were higher than they were last year. right now, they are breaking even. the same amount of people are getting refunds and they are the same amount as in past years. we will see if they can vary through a tax season. i suspect at the end of this tax season they will be close to what they were, and people will not only have the refunds they got in the past, they will have the tax cuts that began showing up in their paycheck last february. i feel confident the tax season and support for the new tax cuts continue to grow. jason: speaking of taxes, and i'm speaking to you as a new yorker sitting among new yorkers , i spoke toerned

someone on wall street who was talking about the state and local tax issue. how much you hear about that? are you just hearing a lot of bad news from folks in the tri-state area but not so much from other parts of the country? rep. brady: new york, new jersey, these are paying taxes states. very dynamic, people love living here. their state and local taxes are brutally high and so far out of the mainstream is hard to describe it. the $10,000 cap is double the national average. you are getting pounded with unbelievably high taxes. at the end of the day, repealing the soft cap would be a $10 tax cut for the middle class on $140,000 tax-cut for the wealthy. that is where almost all of that goes. i thinknd of the day

states like new jersey, new york, california, connecticut, illinois, minnesota will have to lower their taxes and give their people a break. jason: folks where you're from our with you on that one. one more question. carried interest tax treatment has been bandied about for the better part of a decade. do you see this congress taking that up and would you support that? rep. brady: democrats may raise this issue. i do not think it ultimately goes very far. here is why. we struck a balance in the new tax code on carried interest. we wanted to make sure individuals were risking their own capital. we wanted to make sure they were not just flipping these things around but holding them long-term. i think the three-year hold was appropriate. it chased a lot of actors out of the carried interest approach.

made what we hoped would be longer-term investment, progrowth, people putting their capital at risk. in tax reform,, we found a balance between all parties. brady,congressman kevin republican, ranking member on the house ways and means committee. thank you for spending time today. coming up, investing in underserved communities. the little-known part of that tax law comes into a $22 billion investment vehicle. we will talk with how secretary -- housing secretary ben carson. this is bloomberg. ♪

jason: this is "balance of

power" on bloomberg television. i'm jason kelly. it is a little-known portion of the republican tax law. $22 billion in investment opportunity. their call opportunity zones designed to stimulate investment in distressed areas of the country. joining us with more is ben carson, secretary of housing and urban to government. it is today's conversation in chief. great to be with you. sec. carson: thank you. nice to be with you. jason: this is a big topic among investors in new york and beyond . scrambling to figure out how to take advantage of this opportunity. remind us how it works. what is the effort here? sec. carson: this is an outcropping of the 2017 tax-cut and jobs bill. it created opportunity zones. each governor and the head of

the five territories and d.c. have the ability to designate 25% of their economically distressed areas as opportunity zones. opportunity funds than work in these areas where people can invest unrealized capital gains. depending on how long you leave those gains, you get certain benefits. if you leave it in for five inrs you get a 10% decrement the amount of capital gains vote on the original investment, two additional years you get an additional 5%. years,leave it in for 10 you have to pay no capital gains on the new money that was gained. it is a command as opportunity financially. and even bigger opportunity is people with money are going to invest it somewhere. this encourages them to invest it in areas that have

traditionally been neglected. that makes a big difference. it is a long-term investment, you do not have people reaping benefits and disappearing. they will be interested in the return on investment so they will be interested in making sure that investment works. jason: help us understand how this program is different. this and theyk at think of enterprise zones from the clinton administration, which research overtime has shown were not that effective. what will make this work where others did not? sec. carson: the biggest difference is the long-term incentive to stay invested and therefore be interested in what happens with your investment. have anth this case, we opportunity's and revitalization counsel which i'm privileged to chair and involves 13 different federal agencies.

we were able to, instead of working at cross purposes, merge the things we do and remove a lot of the regulatory barriers and when problems come up, instead of being sent to this agency and that this one, it can take a year to solve the problem, we can do it almost immediately. jason: one of the critiques of this program has then around the selection -- has been around the selection of the zones themselves, saying we will subsidize places that were going to get investment anyway. how do you ensure that does not happen? sec. carson: that is one of the reasons we do not want the zones to be chosen by a group of federal people. we left it up to the states themselves, to the governors and to the people who advise the governors. who will be the ones have the best impression of which places will benefit. i have had an opportunity to

travel around the country and see some of the places. it is quite spectacular. one of the places i went was a sawmill. it was going out of business because it was an opportunity zone, new buyers came along. they invested, they built it up. builderslt of that, started building houses for the employees. that is the way it works. one thing begets the next. jason: over time, another concern is lost tax revenue. i was just talking with congressman brady about the fact that it is tax time for companies and individuals. how much do you worry about lost tax revenue as this program goes on? sec. carson: what will be generated will be much greater. a conservative estimate is that $100 billion will be in the zone's. i suspect it will be much more

than that. if you look at the last couple of years, there's about $2.3 trillion in unrealized capital gains. as people begin to realize the long-term benefits, i think that will probably take care of itself. jason: you also feel like this investment opportunity is widely available enough? you have a would be bunch of fat cats in new york who are going to take advantage of this. it is not from an investment perspective going to be widely enjoyed. how do you ensure that? sec. carson: there has already been about $25 billion committed and we do not have the second and third tranches of regulation out yet. the information is spreading quickly. long-termme of the investments people do for retirement and things like that.

this is going to be an ideal vehicle for those. as people begin to get more involved and hear about the successes that others are having, i think our next problem will be demanding we create more opportunity zones. jason: one headline grabbing a lot of attention on the bloomberg is around u.s. housing starts, following the most since june, missing estimates. what is your sense of the housing market right now? investors seem worried sending shares of the home builders and other housing related stocks down. you travel around. what is the state of housing? sec. carson: i always get a chuckle out of those reports because one month is up. the next month is down. the sky is falling. do fromsome catch up to the housing crisis. i think things are moving in a

positive direction. housing -- jason: housing prices , smallest gain in six years. do you worry the prices are not where folks would like them to be? sec. carson: i think we allow the market to work. things will settle out where they should be. the market forces will take them where they should be. when we try to manipulate them, that is when we get in trouble. secretary ben carson, today's conversation in chief. thank you so much. coming up, at burger king you can have it your way, that mcdonald's you can have at the futuristic way. more on the past few -- on the fast food giants move into the tech industry. this is bloomberg. ♪

jason: this is "balance" on bloomberg television.

i'm jason kelly. mcdonald's has made its largest acquisition in 20 years, buying tech company dynamic field for $300 million in a push to personalize its menus. -- let'slet's walk him welcome bloomberg news restaurant reporter. this is a fun story. a lot of people reading it on the bloomberg terminal and online. what is mcdonald's up to? leslie: they will be doing more personalized menu. they've been doing more digital and tech stuff for years. this shows how important it is for the company. more personalized menus. when you pull up to the drive-through, it is a hot day, they will suggest a mc flurry, or it is a cold day they will suggest a hot coffee. the company knows things like the weather, the time of day, even traffic patterns. things like that you would not think of.

jason: i do feel like mcdonald's and others have come a long way even over the past year or two, showing people what you are ordering in the drive-through and being able to say that is what i said. are they ahead, are they behind? put them in the scope of the rest of the fast food industry. i would same at donald's is a leader in this space. they were one of the first to adopt delivery with uber reads. thousands of locations do it globally. others will be following their lead. because of their size and their scale, they typically are a leader in this kind of thing. under easterbrook they are becoming more and more of a leader especially with digital. jason: if they are leading, who is lagging? who should we be looking for to make a similar deal or some investments? leslie: it is interesting to

watch chipotle. they are under the former taco bell head. they lack in digital and tech previous to him coming in. it will be interesting to watch what chipotle does in this space. now they are pushing up delivery like mcdonald's. they are doing a new loyalty program. what is next for them on this thing? jason: a hypercompetitive market. will we see any consolidation in the fast food market? leslie: it is hard to say. we have seen some already. brands is what you always think of with the company that owns burger king. there are words of different larger companies buying the pizza chain. rumors always about dunkin' donuts. we could see more. i think that is possible. at the same time, these rumors tend to get out there and

nothing happens. jason: leslie patent, thank you so much. joining us for chicago with the big mcdonald's news. sign up for the balance of power newsletter at bloombergpolitics.com or bloomberg.com/politics to get the latest on global politics in your inbox. close,up on the european tina fordham will be discussing the political implications as we await the next step in the brexit process. bloomberg users can interact with the charts using gtb go -- . gtv this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ guy: 30 minutes left in the

european trading day. from london, i'm guy johnson. vonnie: from new york, i'm vonnie quinn and this is the "european close" on bloomberg markets. guy: stoxx 600, we do have energy stocks performing well. oil prices are elevated. the pound fading and earlier rally. comments from the head of the hard brexit caucus within parliament, it does seem that despite the fact that he is indicating he could back theresa may's withdrawal deal the dup are not and as a result the earlier rally is fading. we are risk on around the world. tradingghai composite below 3000 and down 1.5% overnight. one standout stock story is wirecard, the german fin tech coming out with comments the